suemack

hi Jelte and welcome I've got plants and UGF - and I worried about the gunge under the filter too - now I just use my siphon thingi and try and get as much muck out as I can especially at the front of the tank where it seems to build up I clean the gravel as close as I can around the plants (used to pull them up....siphon..... replant....they didn't like that....died ) regards - sue

I don't think it's you Ira - local pet shop brought in a whole tank load of babies BN (she's never had a problem with them in the past) and she lost the lot

hi myst :lol: don't worry we all started by trial and error and you have come to a good place with a lot of helpful people:D guppies are cool

welcome to the forum myst how long have you had your gupppy for and has she/he got a v shape fin underneath or a long skinny one that lies flat along side it's body? The females usually have a rounder tummy with a v shape fin underneath and the males are slimline and their bottom fin lies flat alongside their bodies - it can be really hard to tell which sex they are until they are a bit older - yours may still be a baby

Ira - when you say cleaning out is that completely stripping down everything - so far when the flow has slowed have only cleaned out sponge and the uplift and that has improved the situation

how often should you completely clean out filters - in my 2 x 10 gall tanks I replaced the box filters with Aquaclear minis - I rinse out the sponge in the water I've siphoned out once a week and wash out the gloop from the uplift when it looks gluggy - the instruction box says to strip it down and clean the impellor on a regular basis? How often? The other thing is - do you need to have carbon in the filters - at present haven't got any in and the tanks seem to be fine - the info that came with the filters seems to recommend that you do! My filters always get a bit yuk as most of the tanks have fry in and are fed frequently and with fine foods :oops: ok - I overfeed :oops:

read somewhere that that the pheromones put out by the dominant male(usually) inhibit the growth and development of the smaller less dominant fish - take him out and the next dominant grows and so on - water changes are s'posed to dilute the levels of these pheromones in the water. came upon this bizarre bit of information when I started doing an animal behavioural course that was fairly involved (didn't finish - life got in the way) :lol:

hi ChrisMack would you call the offspring of these two a puppie or a guffer? :roll: regards from suemack

Pies put a complaint in writing to the owner of Jansens - Rolf Jansen - if you complain to the people working in the shop it will be forgotten or brushed aside. Hopefully others will do the same - may make them take it more seriously sue

it's not toooo bad as I limit the amount of bloodworms I feed them - only one cube and they have to share with the guppies - I've been getting tough!!!! :roll: As I turn the lights out put a few shrimp pellets in and something for the otos.

that's what my dog thinks too - chicken, rabbit, sheep, cow, possum - she loves to roll in them all

hi cat would chook poo work as well - we have plenty of that here and we don't have sheep. All my adult fish love the daphnia and the guppy fry start to eat it at about 10 days and seem to do really well with regular servings

hi Ash as you can see it is a lively active and very helpful forum. Just watch out I'll be offering you guppies soon :lol: regards from the north sue

would daphnia in a paddling pool survive a small brown terrier playing splash - have a wee problem with my dog and water!! in spring/summer my fish pig out on mosquito larvae - they're prolific up here and I'd rather my fish feast on them than them feast on me

hi Robbo get these neat little packets of daphnia from LFS and defrost what I need - did try live daphnia ONCE - ick!!! There were millions in the bag - fed the fish - still millions...... ....ended up with this stinking putrid mess that got poured down the drain - decided then that frozen was manageable They come from Biosuppliers, Auck (09)4182352 cheers - sue

welcome sucky fish - one of my guppies is giving birth to some friends for your lonely guppy as I write this......... :lol:

hi Trudy - 18 tanks - awesome!!!!!! you are going to have so much fun choosing fishes!! how big are the tanks or have you got a variety? .....and welcome to the forum - sue

I'm trying to toughen up - decide no more bloodworms so put the tablets in... then the kuhlis come out to feed.....go past their food in search of "real food" ...and keep searching. Did that for a couple of nights in a row once and....as you can see I'm well trained - :roll: I'm a much better dog trainer than fish trainer!!!

this is one of my grow on tanks for guppies so there are a few 1/2 grown fish (no. dependant on how big the last drop was ) these get fed flake in the am or daphnia once or twice a week. have tried dropping other tablets in at night and the kuhlis and the harahara are not in the slightest bit interested in them - food will be there in the am when the light goes on- as I say these kuhlis have me very well trained!!!

how often should you feed frozen bloodworms - my kuhlis have me very well trained - they usually get some most evenings shortly before the lights go out - they and the harahara catfish come out from under their driftwood for tea with great enthusiasm. Should I be feeding bloodworms this often - the kuhlis are not that enthusiastic about other offerings. I also have a couple of otos in that tank so they get a algae wafer as the lights go out. Don't have a water quality problem in the tank as w/c are regular - thanks - sue

hi Rob2 greetings from another newcomer to the forum - - its a great place to come visit - unlike you I'm also new to computers - took me forever to realize that you didn't drag those little smilies from one place to another - thought there was something wrong with the computer (thankfully didn't ring the repairman :oops: ) talk to you later sue

hi David and welcome - it's really good to be able to talk 'fish' to people who don't look at you as if you're rather strange - try telling yr friends that yr cory eggs just hatched and you have to race home to feed them :roll: sue

hi Craig - greetings from northland - this is a great forum, you'll enjoy it what sort of fish do you want to put in the tank? I've got some spare guppies :lol: sue

sounds great Peter - bare tanks sound a bit easier - mine are in my living room and have gravel/plants - do smaller w/changes throughout the week, then more thorough on the weekend - have you ever had problems with your fry getting sucked up into the filters? In my 5 galls have got box filters converted to sponge filters and have no probs with these but in the 10 galls have Aqua minis and have had some of the fry esp newborns end up in the filter boxes - a few survive if I find them soon enough. What do you do with all your grown on babies - I've only got the one fem who is breeding properly - all the rest have tank mates who consider the babies as snacks so only a few survive - get enough fry from 1 fem to keep our LFS and friends supplied. Usually get 20 - 30 good looking young guppies per drop. Don't know if I could find 'homes' for more - sue

wonderful photos - what sort of camera do you use. Haven't had much luck with fish pics yet - lots of blurry silvery streaks! AND - can you keep WCMM's in a tropical tank with guppies - have only seen them occasionally at the LFS but they didn,t look very happy